Phil made a DIY breakout board for the PIC16F883 microcontroller. The board uses a surface-mount single-layer design, and the parts are nicely spaced. It’s an easy board to make at home using the DIY toner-transfer method of PCB etching. You can download the source files and other design data from his site.

Few month ago I wanted to try to write software for Microchip PIC16F883 microcontroller and I couldn’t find simple development board for it. And so I made my own.

It took me a couple of hours to design the board in Eagle and a couple more hours to make it with toner transfer method and solder it.

This development board is as simple as it gets. Just PIC16F883 controller in SO28W package, linear regulator with two selectable voltages 3.3V and 5V. Bunch of pinheaders connected straight to the MCU I/O pins, pinheaders for VCC and GND, and programming port.